"You know," she said, "today is the feast of St. Blaise. He's the patron saint for anything to do with the throat…" The patient responded eagerly, "I'm not Catholic--I'm Episcopalian--but I'll gladly take his help!" So my sister recited the "blessing of St. Blaise" prayer and assured the patient that they were going to go through the surgery with a very special intercessor.
The patient's agitation diminished rapidly, and the surgery went well.
In fact, one of the other nurses had already had her throat blessed that morning, even though she didn't know what St. Blaise had to do with it. Yet another staff member dismissed the whole topic scornfully. ("You Catholics!") It became an occasion for Mary to witness to the Catholic understanding of intercession and of the Body of Christ.
Has St. Blaise ever given you an opportunity to witness to the faith--or maybe to suffer a bit of ridicule for it?
5 comments:
Archbishop Blaise Cupich was interviewed on PBS(WTTW) in Chicago by Carol Marin last night and she mentioned that today would be the feast of St. Blaise. He gave a wonderful synopsis of the life of St. Blaise and ended with a comment that he'd be blesssing throats at the Cathedral's 8 am Mass.
That's right! Today's your new bishop's Name Day!
I'm hoping to get to 5:15 P.M. Mass at my parish, for the throat blessing, but this weather doesn't look good, and the buses aren't helping. It's difficult to climb through the snowdrifts to embark or disembark.
Well, I still have a couple of hours to get to Mass. The Hour of Great Mercy was six minutes ago. I don't know. Maybe I'll just walk.--- But, that's also a problem, with all the mountains of snow piled all over.
Not much clear sidewalk, especially wtih tennis shoes, as I have.
God bless. Please pray. That's a wonderful story about that Episcopalian lady!
Yes, this morning our pastor blessed throats just before the final blessing. I could not understand what he said at all, but I said, "Amen." When I left church another lady asked me what Father said, so I guess I wasn't the only one who didn't understand. Nevertheless, I know the story of St. Blaise.
Yes, this morning our pastor blessed throats just before the final blessing. I could not understand what he said at all, but I said, "Amen." When I left church another lady asked me what Father said, so I guess I wasn't the only one who didn't understand. Nevertheless, I know the story of St. Blaise.
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